Namesake
by PeelingOnion
Summary: Dexter has just entered into a life-changing contract with his father. His job? To clean up his deceased grandfather's farm; which sounds much easier than it really is. Based on Harvest Moon 64. Rated M to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everybody! This is my first story, and it's called **Namesake**. It's based off my favorite game from the Harvest Moon series, Harvest Moon 64. However, I put real technology in there. It seems unrealistic that in an entire town, the FARMER was the only one with a TV. XD I wanna thank the beautiful and talented **KDoc254 **for looking over my story and pointing grammar stuff out to me. Grammar has never been my strong suit. If you like **Namesake**, please drop a review my way. Even if you don't, I always enjoy constructive criticism. Warning: I get pissed at flames. Thanks for taking the time to read!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon 64 or anything Harvest Moon related! If I did, Rick would have been out of there looooong ago (;

* * *

I groaned to myself as I looked around the dilapidated shack I had to live in for the next three years. I got up from the stiff bed, stretched a little bit, and made my way to the two-board door, almost tripping on my bags on the way out. However, outside didn't look much better. The fields were covered in weeds, rocks, and random branches. The barn looked like it might fall down any second. I sighed as I remembered the exact words my father had said to me the day before; they weren't exactly words of encouragement…

***

"So he's really gone? Well…I'm sorry. I know how well you two got along. What're we going to do with this dump? I've got to be back at work by tomorrow, and I don't have the time to manage the sale."

"What?!" I said, shocked. "Sell it? But he worked so hard to make it successful. It's his life legacy."

My father snorted. "Life legacy, Dexter? Really, just look at the place. It looks like it hasn't been touched in years. It would be a waste of land to just let it sit here."

I shuffled the dirt under my boots around in small circles. "Well, I guess I could maybe stay and-" I started.

"You?" Dad exclaimed in an exasperated tone, as if he expected me to say this. "You've lived nearly your entire life in the city! What the hell do you know about farming?"

"I spent nearly every summer at the farm with Grandpa," I said indignantly. "And besides, I bet I could make more in a profit from running the farm than you could make by selling it."

"Oh? If you really think that then let's give it a try. You can run the farm for three years, and when I come back I'll decide what to do."

***

Sometimes I wish I just could keep my mouth firmly closed. But I knew that this is what Grandpa would have wanted done. He always wanted to keep the farm in our family, but never had any success getting my father interested in agriculture. My father always resented the farm life, probably because of how he was first introduced to it.

When my grandpa was in his mid-thirties my grandmother died. At that time all three of them were living in the city, with Grandpa working as a consultant for a big ad company. Grandma's death tore him apart, and he nearly lost it. Instead of returning to work, Grandpa moved them away to Flower Bud Village, a remote town bordered by a small beach and a cluster of mountains. He used almost all of his savings to buy the land, which he named "Rose Farm" after my grandmother. He and my father worked day and night to make the farm prosper. Because of this, my father only got to go school three days a week at the local church with some of the other village children. He always blamed Grandpa for setting him back in life, claiming that his education in Flower Bud Village was "sparse and mediocre".

While I was busy poking at weeds and reminiscing, someone came down the beaten path that lead into the farm. I heard a throat clear, and I jumped up to see who my visitor was. He was a funny-looking, short man with a rotund red nose that was the exact same shade as his top hat and suit. Before I could ask who he was, he started talking in a squeaky little voice.

"Greetings! It's nice to meet you. I'm Thomas, and I'm the mayor of Flower Bud Village. You must be Dexter, old man Dexter's grandson. I'm sure you have many questions about our humble town. Could I offer you a tour, perhaps?"

"Um…," I mumbled. "Sure, that would be nice."

We left the farm and stopped right in the middle of a forked road. He told me that to the right was the river and Moon Mountain, and next to that was the Vineyard. I vaguely remembered the Vineyard from my summers here and I definitely knew all about Moon Mountain; that was where all the children played. Thomas pointed to two roads right across from my farm. He explained that one lead right into the town and the other lead into a more distant portion of the town. Finally, I was told that the last path lead to Green Ranch, where I could buy animals and their feed.

Thomas nudged me, saying, "You know, I was there the other day and they had a foal. They had no idea what to do with it. You might be able to get a good deal if you stop by there soon. And I'm not talking about Doug's daughter, Ann!"

He roared with laughter at this last statement and even though I had no clue what he was talking about, I let out a weak chuckle.

Thomas led me up the path that went to the inner part of town and started bringing around to all the different businesses. First we went to "Flowers by Lillia", where I was told I could purchase seeds. I was startled to see that both of the women who ran it had bright pink hair. The older one, Lillia, who ran the business, sweetly said hello and then promptly introduced me to her daughter. Her name was Popuri. Popuri batted her eyelashes at me, and I noticed she had red eyes. This creeped me out a little bit and made me to wonder if she was albino or something.

Next, we stopped by the very church my father complained about all the time. After that was the bar, the village square, and then the tool shop. The owner of the tool shop, Rick, came out to say hello. He had glasses so big and outdated that they could probably double as goggles. Still, he seemed like a nice guy.

After that, we walked a short distance to the bakery, where a young woman was already standing outside, peering curiously at the mayor and me as we walked her way. She smiled politely at the mayor and introduced herself as Elli. She was very friendly, and even offered us a piece of her cake. As we were all making small talk, a very old woman came out of the bakery to greet us. She took one look at me, then exclaimed, "Why, Dexter! How much you've grown! You look just like your grandpappy…"

Ellie said, "Well Grandma, I guess you already know Dexter, so there's no need to introduce you to him. But Dexter, this is my Grandmother, Ellen." Elli turned to me with a small smile on her face. "I guess both of us were named after our grandparents, then."

I nodded, and the mayor suggested we move on. We took a shortcut to the other part of town where saw the potion shop and the library. At the library I met Thomas' wife, Anna, and his daughter Maria. Maria managed the library and didn't say a word during the entire introduction.

The mayor left me here, saying I was free to roam around the town or go to the farm and get to work. As I made my way back to the farm, I passed a small graveyard. Most of it was dedicated to peoples' deceased pets, but I soon found Grandpa's tombstone. I picked some wildflowers that were nearby and sadly placed them on his grave.

"I wish you were here, Grandpa…I need help now more than ever."

I slowly walked back to the farm, but before I got to the end of the path that lead to the forked roads I turned back to look at his grave one more time. However, standing right there was a young woman, with long brown hair and a purple vest. She was standing where I had been, peering down at the grave. She noticed my staring and looked in my direction. I gave her a small wave, but she only stalked away in the opposite direction.

I turned around, slightly miffed, and jogged back to the farm. I really hope this farm thing works out…if not for me, for Grandpa.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon 64 or anything else Harvest Moon related!

* * *

I wiped the sweat off of my brow as I surveyed the progress I had made so far on the field. I had just enough room to plant five cabbage plants. There was a huge difference in the land that I had pulled weed-free and the parts of the field I had yet to clear. Still, I had only been working for half a day, and I couldn't work anymore today: it was seven and the sun was already going down.

I walked over to the shipping bin to have a seat while I watched the sun lazily descend below the horizon. Zack, a local buyer, had come by earlier and explained the function of the large wooden box. He was disappointed that I had nothing to ship today, but he seemed to understand, with it being my first day and everything. He recommended collecting seasonal fruits from around Moon Mountain, just so that I had some kind of income before I started harvesting my own vegetables. I planned to go there tomorrow morning to collect whatever I could find and after that head over to Lillia's seed shop to get the supplies I needed.

However, for the time being I really didn't have much to do. It was too early to turn in for the night and too late to do anymore farm work. I smelled pretty bad, so going into town would probably be a bad idea, especially since I was new and ran the risk of being labeled as someone who didn't bathe. I vaguely remembered where the beach was, so I decided to head down there and just watch the water for a little while.

I was glad to find that the path leading to the beach was close to my house. I used to go here so often during my childhood summers and I was eager to see if anything new had happened to the small beach. The hill that leads down to the beach was pretty steep, and I was lucky that I didn't fall after seeing who was lying on the sand. It was the girl that had been at Grandpa's grave earlier today.

She was probably the most attractive girl I had ever laid eyes on. Her hair was a shiny chestnut brown, but her long side bangs were a bright shade of blonde. Her slender form was outfitted in khaki short shorts, with a tight white cami under a form-fitting dark purple vest and ankle-high hiking boots.

Her eyes were closed, but the second she heard the sound of my boots shuffling through the sand she snapped them open and quickly stood up. The moment I saw her mint green eyes, I remembered her from my summers here. We used to come down to the beach all the time to build sand castles, bury each other, or just wait for the supply ship to come once every two weeks. She always told me that one day she would just get on the ship and sail away to the city to dance. I guess she hasn't gotten to that yet.

She narrowed her eyes and rudely asked, "What're you doing here? Isn't there a trashy farm waiting to be attended to?"

Surprised, I dumbly told her "Well, it's too dark to weed or anything."

I waited for her reply, but after ten seconds of awkward silence, I was pretty sure she wasn't going to say anything back.

"Well, uhh," I said slowly. "I'm Dexter. I used to come here during the summertime to stay with my grandpa. You may have known him as Dexter, I was named-"

She cut me off there, snapping "I know. Jesus, it's a fucking tiny town, of course I know who you are. People have been blabbing about you coming here ever since Paps got sick."

Her coarse language took me aback. I must have looked pretty offended, because she then said to me in an almost nice tone, "I guess you don't remember me then. I'm Karen. We used to come down here all the time to mess around with the sand and stuff. Paps would sometimes come here with us to help decorate whatever dumb shit we had constructed that day."

I smiled. "Actually, I do remember that. It's just been a while, that's all. Those summers were the best time of my life. But I don't recall ever addressing my grandfather as 'Paps' "

She turned a bit red and muttered, "Well, here all the young people called him that. He was like a grandfather to all of us."

She sat back down and looked out at the ocean. I cautiously sat down in the sand a few feet away from her. She looked at me and raised her eyebrows. I didn't want to offend her, so I scooted closer. We looked at the stars in the sky, pointing out the constellations we knew to one another. Although we only knew two real ones, we made them up until we were tapped out of ideas and laughing too hard to care.

Suddenly, Karen looked at her watch and let out a little yelp. "It's nine-thirty already? Christ, I have to get home or my dad will murder me."

"He was always a bit of hardass, wasn't he?" I said, feeling pretty hardcore cussing around Karen.

She raised her eyebrows. "That's a bit of an understatement. But yeah, I've got to get home."

For a minute she seemed to soften up to me completely. I grinned, realizing that a girl had never made me feel so on my toes.

"Well, I'll be here tomorrow," I hinted. "Same place, same time…"

She laughed. "I'll remember that."

Karen started to walk away, but turned around when she reached the base of the hill.

"Oh, yeah, Dexter," She yelled. "be sure to take a shower before you come next time. You smell like ass!"

Needless to say, I jumped in the shower pretty much right after I got home.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone :D Thanks so much for reading and please remember to write a review! It encourages me to write faster and I promise to listen to your ideas/suggestions. Thanks again for reading (:

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest moon!

* * *

The next three days went almost exactly as the first had. However, instead of having the back-breaking task of tilling soil, I now just had the job of watering the seeds and watching them sprout up. After watering the plants, while it was still pretty early, I made my way over to Moon Mountain to gather some of the seasonal fruits and grasses that grew there. In the spring it was mostly medicinal grasses, which the guy who ran the potion shop eagerly bought up from Zack. I put some of them aside everyday to make a strong tea with the next morning. My muscles were killing me, and I paid the potion master 100g just to tell me how to make a muscle relaxing tincture.

The only thing about my days that had any kind of variety so far was my evenings at the beach with Karen. During our second meeting there, she was almost completely silent and just sat and watched the surf roll in. The day after that, she was furious at her father and Kai, the vineyard helper, who had forgotten she was taking inventory in the wine cellar and locked her in there for three hours. Yesterday, she was outgoing and funny, similar to how she was on the first day. She was so temperamental and random, and for some reason I couldn't get enough of it.

So, tonight, like every other normal night, I headed down to the beach to see what kind of mood Karen might be in. I hoped to myself it was romantic mood. Though we made no obvious moves in that direction, I knew that we both felt an undeniable tension between us.

As I walked through the sand, I noticed Karen wasn't here yet. The only time she had come to the beach after me was the day of the cellar incident with her father and Kai. I looked around the beach, and instead of finding Karen, I found a message written in the sand. It read:

"WORKING AT BAR, FRI-SUN"

I smiled. This meant she wanted me to be there. That had to mean _something_. I jogged up the steep path that lead away from the beach and walked briskly through town to the small bar located right next to the steps to the village square. I walked into the dimly lit room and quickly took a seat by the window. I saw Karen talking to Kai at one table, taking his order on a writing pad. I also saw Zack, Ann's brother Gray, the guy who ran the bakery, and Mayor Thomas scattered around, sipping their various drinks.

Karen turned around and saw me. She smiled and raised one finger, just to tell me she'd be there in a minute. She brought Kai his bottle of beer and in exchange he gave her a flirty grin and said something. Karen gave him a small smile, but when she turned around to walk to my table, she rolled her eyes at whatever he had said.

Instead of just standing to take my order, she sat in the chair opposite me.

"Hey, sorry I couldn't make it to the beach tonight. I've got to work here to earn some pocket money, since Dad doesn't give me a damn penny for what I do at the vineyard."

I gave her a supportive smile and said, "Nah, it's fine. I do get tired of shaking my pants sand free every night."

She giggled. "Too true. So did you just come here to flatter me, or do you actually want something to drink?"

"Hmm, I think I'll have whatever wine you've got here. Just one glass. I'm not looking to get totally smashed, like good old Gray over there."

We both looked over Gray's way, whose face was red and was currently in a passionate argument with Mayor Thomas about breeding Himalayan cats .

Karen looked sympathetic. "Poor Gray, he's never been the same after his accident."

"Accident?" I asked.

"Yeah, he used to race horses," she replied. "But he fell off a horse one race, and broke both his legs and one arm. He healed, but Doug is nervous about him racing, so he's not allowed to anymore. She frowned. "It's pretty sad, cause he used to be such a great racer. And a much nicer person."

"Oh," I said. "That sucks. I guess he deserves to have a drink every now and then."

Karen snorted. "Try every night." She stood up, smoothing the apron she wore over her usual outfit. "Now, you said you wanted a glass of wine?"

"Yep. Preferably one that came from your vineyard."

I figured that it couldn't hurt to suck up to her a bit. Better yet, it seemed to work, because her face lit right up.

"I'll be right back with one of my favorite bottles. We can share it. But first, I'm going to need to see some ID, Mr. Dexter."

I pulled my wallet out of the back of my jeans, and when I was fumbling around in it for my ID, Karen laughed and put her hand over my searching fingers.

"It was a joke, Dex." She smiled a quick, shy smile and left to get the wine.

While Karen was gone, I noticed that I was getting a supreme mega-glare from Kai. I gave him a weak little wave and he nodded coldly in reply.

Karen bounded back over, with a bottle of wine in one hand and two wine glasses in the other. She poured us both a generous glass and sat back to take a long sip. I followed suit, and found the wine to be very sweet, but bitter at the same time. She looked up.

"So what do you think? I made up this blend on my own a couple years ago."

"I love it," I said honestly. "How did you get the sweet and bitter thing going on at the same time?"

"Oh," She said. "It has to do with the grapes. I doubt you wanna hear about it."

I shrugged. "Sure I do. Shoot," I said, taking another gulp of the complex wine.

Karen went into a long explanation of the different flavor of each grape they grew and how she tested them for years until she came up with combinations people liked. The conversation flowed in and out of different topics until the bottle of wine was completely gone. By this time everyone had cleared out, and Duke was ready to let Karen go for the night. She stumbled to the coat rack to hang up her apron, and then walked slowly and deliberately back to the table. We left the money for the wine on the table, and Duke waved cheerfully at us as we both did a drunken walk out of the bar.

I don't remember how we managed to make it up the long way to the vineyard, but we did somehow. As Karen let herself in to her house, she turned and slurred, "I like men who can hold their liquor. Thanks for hanging with me tonight, Dex. See you tomorrow."

She embraced me in a tight and clumsy hug, and closed the door. I smiled to myself and stumbled back to the farm for the night. I made an extra strong mixture of the medicinal herbs, and drank it as I climbed in the bathtub to wash the smell of liquor off of me. I knew that I needed all the medical help I could find to get me over the enormous hangover that would inevitably greet me tomorrow morning. But at least it was worth it. After all, Karen did say that she liked men who could hold their liquor.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! I'm happy to say that Chapter 4 is much longer than the other ones so far, so there's more to read (and review!) Speaking of, no one has left a review yet... It would be nice to see at least _some _comments! Just sayin' (; Anway, I hope you all enjoy :D

Nothing has changed. I still don't own Harvest Moon.

* * *

Sure enough, the next morning I was greeted by throbbing headache that seemed to pound my brain into mush. Even the sound of my zipper crawling up my jeans sounded like a machine gun at close range. Just as I was finishing up watering the cabbage plants, I heard someone coming down the dirt path to my farm. I winced at the sunlight as I looked up, but immediately composed myself upon seeing it was Karen.

There really was no nice was to say it; she looked terrible. Her usually perfect, straightened hair had a bad case of bed head and her clothes were wrinkled from being slept on all night long.

"Dexter," she managed to croak out. "Do you feel half as shitty as I do, or is it just me?"

I nodded somberly, holding my head to indicate I had a major migraine. She cracked a small smile, pointed to the door, and started slowly shuffling in the direction of my beat up little shack. I was grateful for the silence and quickly finished up watering the last plant.

When I entered my house, I saw that Karen was spread out over my bed with her hand over her face.

"I can't remember the last time I got that wasted," she said hoarsely.

"I know what you mean," I whimpered while collapsing on my couch. "Last time I had a hangover like this must have been in college or something."

Karen sat up and patted the empty space next to her on my bed. "You've been to college? How old are you, anyway?" she asked suspiciously.

I plopped myself down next to her. "Just twenty-two," I laughed. "It was community college. I went for a degree in business because I couldn't make up my mind on what I wanted to do. I wouldn't have dreamed it would be…well, this." I waved my hands around the musty little house.

"I don't think anyone would 'dream' of this," she snorted.

"Neh. Better than staying with my dad. He was trying to get me into an entry-level job at his ad company." I sighed. "Anything's an upgrade from pushing pencils, you know?"

"Yeah," she said sleepily. Karen rested her head on my shoulder and blew her long side bangs off of her face.

We must have slept like this for 4 hours, because by the time we woke up it was already two in the afternoon. She tapped me gently on my chest to wake me up and smiled sheepishly when she realized just how close our faces were to one another.

"Hey, do you mind if I stay here until work at 8? I don't really feel like going home…"

Even though I was buzzing with excitement inside, I tried to maintain a cool attitude as I replied, "Sure, that would be okay. I don't really have much to do anyway."

Karen looked over at my luggage and raised her eyebrows. "Need help unpacking or are you planning on leaving soon?" She tried to hide the disappointment in her face, but I caught it just before she looked away at the window to cover it up.

"Nah, I'm just lazy. I tried unpacking last week, but got too bored all by myself."

Translation: I was too busy drooling over you to care about anything else.

"All right, Paris Hilton. Let's get started on bag number one," she giggled.

"Paris Hilton? It's just four bags! Try packing everything you ever owned into four suitcases," I whined.

She scrunched up her face and crossed her arms sourly. "Too loud, Dex! Jesus, I'm still trying to get over this hangover."

"Sorry," I said mockingly soft, earning myself a playful punch.

She unzipped the first bag as I started on the second. I was reaching for my underwear to subtly put away in the bottom drawer of my dresser, but froze as I heard a screech from Karen's direction.

I started to sweat, thinking that she had maybe found my embarrassingly tight Speedo swimsuit.

"You have a laptop?!" she whisper-yelled, remembering both of our headaches.

"Well, yeah, don't you have a computer?" I asked, mystified as to why she was so wound up over a Dell.

"My piece of junk is _hardly_ a computer," she pouted. "A more appropriate word might be dinosaur or senior citizen or medieval calculator-," she cut off and blushed when she realized she was starting to ramble. "You get the point," she grumbled. "It's older than fucking Larry King."

I chuckled quietly as she looked over the computer completely mesmerized. After she got over the shock of recent technology, Karen reverently put the laptop on the decrepit old table in the corner of the one-room house. She then proceeded to marvel over my cell phone and iPod, examining each one carefully before putting them away.

"Hey, wait!" she said angrily as she picked up the iPod again. "Rick sold me a two inch thick hunk of junk MP3 player and told me it was the most recent music player on the market! What a lying little bitch…"

I shrugged. "He seems pretty outdated to me. I bet that iPod he sold you was ten times more current than those glasses he wears."

Karen suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. "I knew I wasn't the only one who thought those things were terrible! I always thought that if he and Maria had children, their kid's head would just be one huge pair of glasses."

We continued to unpack for some time, although I was really doing most of the organizing; Karen was just ogling over whatever came out of my suitcases. I knew this town was behind the times, but I didn't know they were this out of it.

Finally, after two hours, everything was put away. I went to stuff the suitcases into a small closet in the way back of the house, leaving Karen alone in the main room to do whatever.

"Christ Dexter, this place is nasty," she informed me, as if I wasn't clued into this already. "I bet it hasn't been dusted in centuries."

"I know," I said shamefully. "I haven't gotten around to housework yet. I'm mainly just concentrating on the outside field for now. I'd rather have a solid source of income than a sparkling clean homestead."

"Makes sense," she agreed. "But a coat of paint and a little elbow grease never hurt anybody." She looked down at her watch. "We've still got an hour left to kill. What do you say we try to spiffy up the place?"

"Well," I said skeptically. "If you're game, then I guess I am too."

"Alright! I see you're brave," she looked down as a pink flush crept up from her neck. "I like that."

I didn't want to say anything that might embarrass her, so I just cleared my throat and asked her what she thought needed to be done to the place.

"I think the easier question to answer is what doesn't need to be done," Karen replied as she looked around frowning. "The doors need new hinges, the knobs need to be polished, the walls need to be cleaned and painted, the dresser could use a sanding…and I haven't even seen the bathroom yet."

"Details, details, details," I teased. "This is starting to sound kind of expensive."

"Not really," she argued. "Rick is cheap as shit with little stuff like nails and hinges. Come with me on Monday to his shop and you'll see for yourself."

Another day with Karen? I was feeling pretty damn lucky. Of course, I quickly agreed to the plans she had laid out so far.

"Wait," I said, sensing a little fluke in the plan already. "What about your father? You work at the vineyard most weekdays, right?"

"Oh," she said nonchalantly. "No worries. I quit doing his petty little errands for him the other day. He doesn't pay me at all for all the work I do, and it's bullshit. I'm the one keeping the vineyard together, and he'll see that soon enough. Call it a worker's strike, if you want to."

"Way to go, Karen. Take a stand against the man."

"When the man is an asshole it's not so easy," she said, looking pretty downcast. "But anyway, while I've got some time off, I may as well waste it here."

"Well, I would be glad to have your company," I said, giving her genuine smile.

Karen tried to cover up her impending blush by focusing on the time on her watch. "It's ten to eight," she muttered. "I've gotta go like, now."

"I'll walk you there," I offered. "But since we have so much work ahead of us, I'm not sure it's a good idea for me to go in for a drink."

"Okay then Mastah Dextah," she said in a terrible British accent. "Shall we depaht for the Bah?"

"Alrighty Lady Karen," I said in an equally terrible impression. "Let us nawt dilly-dally!"

We hooked arms and headed off towards the beaten dirt roads that lead to town. Karen gave me a hug as we stopped at the bar entrance.

"Thanks for another fun day, Dex. I barely know you, but it seems like you're already closer to me than most of the people in the town." She looked down shyly and then looked straight into my eyes. We drew closer and closer to one another, and just as our lips were less than three inches away, we heard a deafening crash from behind the bar. We both jumped away completely startled and still dazed from our near-kiss encounter.

"Duke?" she yelled timidly. "Is that you?"

When she heard nothing in response, she looked to me with a frightened look on her face.

"Would you mind…"

"Don't even need to ask," I said, already on the way to check out the noise. I poked around the garbage cans and wooden crates until I found the culprit of the crash. I chuckled and picked up the little puppy that caused the mini avalanche.

Karen peeked from behind the bar porch looking worried, but when she saw it was only a little puppy she came running over.

"Oh my God!" she said sounding elated. "How cute is this!"

She scooped the puppy from my arms and examined it for a couple seconds. The puppy was mostly white, with big orange spots all over its body. Its ears were floppy and huge and hung all the way down to the end of its face.

"It's a boy," I observed. "He's a handsome little guy for sure."

"Handsome?" she said incredulously "He's adorable!"

"Do you think he belongs to someone?" I asked, frowning. I flashed back to losing my puppy when I was six and remembered how devastated I was when no one ever returned him.

"I'll ask around at the bar tonight," Karen said dazed, off somewhere in La-La Land with the puppy.

"Okay…Well where will we keep him tonight? I doubt Duke would appreciate you bringing him into the bar." Just as I asked this I knew exactly what she would say.

"With you, duh," she answered, finally looking at me. "He's staying with you! You have an entire farm, don't be stingy."

"Alright, alright! I'm not objecting or anything. Just saying."

"Good," she said. "What're we gonna name him? He's a cute little guy and he needs a name to match."

"Umm…Fido?" I offered. "Rex, Spot, Reggie?"

"Boring, generic, been done, and what the _fuck_?" she said looking disgusted. "No…I christen thee…Bowser!" she beamed.

"Bowser," I tested out. "I like it. It somehow fits him."

"Yeah, because he holds a resemblance to a big, spiked turtle," she said sarcastically. "But I get what you mean."

She handed him over to me and checked her watch. "Shit, I'm already late! I'll visit you two tomorrow to check up." Karen then looked me straight in the eye and threatened, "If a fur on his little body is disturbed, I promise that I will pound you face-down into those cabbage plants you're so damn proud of."

Then, on a sweeter note she said, "But thanks for taking him in. I owe you one."

"No problem," I said, trying to play it off as if it was nothing. "He reminds of this dog I used to have when I was younger. Besides, he gives me something to do tonight besides clean."

She smiled wryly and said, "Don't think you're off the hook just yet. We'll get around to your house." She then made a kissy face at Bowser and told me all about the risk of him getting Tetanus from stepping on a nail.

"Okay, well I've seriously got to get moving," she yelled over her shoulder as she jogged toward the bar. "I'll check up on you guys tomorrow!"

I waved at her running form, set down Bowser, and started back to the farm. Bowser followed me and made himself at home on the foot of my bed while I got ready to sleep. I hope Karen knew something about plumbing, because the way the pipes screamed bloody murder when I turned the water on couldn't be good. I found myself looking forward to everyday on the farm, mostly because it brought me one more day of being with Karen.


End file.
